Farmers from Sijhou Township (溪州), Changhua County, accompanied by the Taiwan Rural Front civic group and legislators, gathered in front of the legislature in Taipei yesterday to protest against the redirection of water traditionally used for agriculture to accommodate the fourth-phase expansion project at the Central Taiwan Science Park.
Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧), a writer and resident of Sijhou, said generations of farmers had depended on irrigation water provided by a canal that runs through their land, but now the government is set to construct a 24.5km underground water pipe appropriating water from the source to provide 66,500 tonnes of water per day for the science park.
Wu questioned the legitimacy of constructing the water pipes, which is said to be a temporary solution before a long-term water source — the proposed Dadu Weir — is built.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Legislators have yet to pass a budget for the pipes and the proposed weir has not undergone an environmental impact assessment by the Environmental Protection Administration.
Holding a bunch of withered rice, farmer Pao Wan-tien (包萬添) said that with irrigation water available for four days and halted for six days, the rice crop had grown into “blank cartridges” with no ripe rice.
Perng Ming-hwei (彭明輝), a professor at National Tsing Hua University, said that if several countries shifted from fossil fuel energy to biomass energy in the future and if Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency rate remained so low at about 30 percent, the nation risked facing a food crisis.
Taiwan Rural Front spokeswoman Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), an associate professor at Shih Hsin University’s Graduate Institute for Social Transformation Studies, said recently that many economists had said that agricultural use of water accounted for about 70 percent of total water usage, which seemed wasteful.
“However, agricultural-use water returns to the natural water cycle in the land; it isn’t polluted like industrial-use water,” she said.
Furthermore, the water, which should be seen as a public asset, was being sold cheaply — at NT$3.3 per tonne — to the park by the local irrigation association, Tsai said.
In a public hearing following the protest, Chang Ching-chang (張敬昌), director of the Department of Irrigation and Engineering at the Council of Agriculture, said that while some farmers believed the shortage in irrigation water was the result of water being rerouted to the science park, in reality the main reason was that the nation had received less rainfall this year.
The irrigation association will only transfer water for industrial use when there is excess water supply, Chang said, adding that industrial-use water at the park would account for 1.6 percent of the total water supply.
Water pipes are only for short-term use and the long-term solution is the proposed Dadu Weir, park director-general Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) said, adding that alternatives would be explored if the weir is not built.
National Science Council Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) said the council would look to attract high-tech industries that do not need substantial amounts of water to the park, in hopes of benefiting both farmers and the economy.
The farmers also demanded that the construction of a proposed sedimentation tank near the park, along with the water pipes — whose cost is estimated at NT$2.3 billion (US$79.6 million) — be stopped immediately until the government gave a clear explanation on alternative solutions should the Dadu Weir project fail to pass an environmental impact assessment.
“I don’t have much to say, because I feel like my stomach has filled with blood,” Pao said. “We have to bend down and plough to feed ourselves, but how are we to make a living with these withered crops? When you [governmental officials] sit there and make decisions with your pen, many of us become victims.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠), a former Changhua County commissioner, concluded the hearing by asking the officials to submit an evaluation and alternative plan to the legislature within three months.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS